# Lee Godie artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/lee-godie/
Profile generated: 2026-05-14T19:42:10.926Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: American
- Movements: Outsider Art, Folk Art, Chicago Imagists circle (associated context)
- Common media: painting, modified photographs, drawing

## About Lee Godie

Lee Godie (1908–1994) was an American self-taught painter and folk artist who became one of Chicago's most recognized outsider artists. Active from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, she produced a prolific body of work—including vivid paintings and hand-modified photographs—that she often sold directly on the streets of Chicago, near the Art Institute. Though she had no formal training, her work entered significant public and private collections and has been exhibited at institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hayward Gallery in London. The Getty Union List of Artist Names classifies her as an American painter and folk artist, and she is widely regarded as a key figure in Chicago's self-taught art tradition.

## Common works and media

Godie's most frequently encountered works include paintings on canvas, board, and paper—often portraits, figures, or urban scenes rendered in bold color. She also produced altered or hand-tinted photographs, sometimes adding paint or collage elements to existing photo-booth images or snapshots. Smaller works on paper and unframed pieces appear regularly in auction contexts. Collectors may also encounter drawings and mixed-media pieces incorporating found materials.

## Market and appraisal context

Lee Godie's work appears regularly at auction, reflecting her prolific output and enduring collector interest. Because she created and sold many pieces informally, provenance documentation and attribution can vary. For appraisal purposes, the medium (oil or acrylic painting versus modified photograph or work on paper), condition, subject matter, documented provenance, and any exhibition or publication history are the primary factors that influence value. Comparable public auction records from outsider-art and American-folk-art sales provide useful benchmarks when available.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity—drawn from authority files, museum records, and biographical sources—with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Lee Godie, identity data is grounded in the Getty ULAN, VIAF, Library of Congress authority files, and Wikidata, with biographical context from public encyclopedic sources.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16013247
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Godie
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500065568
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96131875/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2010093785